Chicago ? First off, let’s extend a blanket apology to Jerry Manuel. The former manager wasn’t the problem with the White Sox. If we’re going to blame him, then we’re going to have to revisit every man-made disaster for new culprits. We’re going to have to blame Custer’s tailor, the Edsel’s pine-tree air freshener and Mike Ditka’s voice coach.

Ozzie Guillen, the current manager, isn’t the problem either.

The ballpark, whatever it’s called, isn’t the problem. It’s a fine place to watch a game. The team chairman, a target more for historical reasons than concrete reasons, isn’t the problem this season. Neither is the general manager, who continues to try hard.

But Ken Williams needs to step back and have a stare-down with reality.

The players are the problem. Not problem children, but problematic. This group is broken. It doesn’t work anymore, and most likely never will.

Perhaps you recall Disco Demolition Night. It’s time for Sox Demolition Night. Everybody must go — via trade, waivers, Adopt-A-Pet, whatever. It’s time to start over.

Very few people would argue the Sox don’t have a lot of talent. Any team with Magglio Ordonez, Paul Konerko, Frank Thomas and Carlos Lee as an offensive core should be formidable. This team isn’t. Even at the Sox’s most alive moments, you need a stethoscope just to make sure.

But the problem doesn’t have to do with emotion. We banged that drum for several years and chided Manuel for his transcendental calm. Guillen is an active volcano, the players have reacted with emotion at times and still … nothing.

The problem doesn’t have to do with egos or petulance or any of the things that can get in the way when great athletes are brought together on one team. This is about a group of players that can’t win, despite all that talent.

The nucleus of the team has been together for six years. This is what the players have to show for it: a record of 481-452 for a winning percentage of .516. One playoff appearance, in 2000 (and they’re still pulling out broom thistles from that sweep by Seattle). So much talent and so little to show for it.

Whom should the Sox acquire when this massive housecleaning begins? The answer might not excite you. The Sox could use a few nobodies who care, people who know how to play the game right. They need to imitate the Twins, who don’t have as much individual talent as the Sox but know how to play together. They have lost players to injury, trade and free agency and still continue to win, year after year. That’s because they’re a team, a concept that never has sunk in with the current group of Sox players. If that’s a reflection on the Sox’s minor-league system, the franchise has huge problems.

The Twins are the answer to the Sox’s lamentations about the loss of Thomas and Ordonez to injuries this season. The Twins have players who don’t let much get in the way of winning. Is there a test for that sort of thing? How do the Sox get their hands on it?

Let Ordonez go if he won’t sign for what the Sox are offering. Use the money to get a few other players. Let Thomas go. See what you can get for Lee and Konerko.

Please don’t misunderstand. These are good players. Most of them are good people. But something happens, some sort of chemical reaction, when you put them together. It’s a kind of oppressiveness, with something thrown in that affects motor skills.

The players need to move on, and so do the Sox. It’s time.